By Norm Dixon
Thousands of West Papuan villagers have rebelled against the giant Freeport gold and copper mine in the Indonesian-occupied western half of New Guinea. The uprising caused extensive damage to the mine and forced its closure for several days.
Freeport is controlled by the US company Freeport McMoran. The Anglo-Australian company RTZ-CRA recently acquired 12% of the project in a deal that guarantees it 40% of any increased output.
Resentment against the world's largest gold mine has been simmering over the massive environmental damage, denial of traditional land rights and the mine management's collaboration with the Indonesian military to maintain operations. Support for the Free Papua Movement (OPM) is reported to be strong in the area.
Indonesian army personnel guarding the mine killed up to 37 people during 1995. In February, army officials were found guilty of ordering troops to shoot villagers.
On March 8, a Freeport vehicle was involved in an accident in the mining town of Tembagapura which injured a local villager. Relatives of the man were denied access to him in hospital, and feelings ran high. Then on March 10 a woman and her son were manhandled by Freeport security guards at the Tembagapura shopping centre. This sparked the riots.
A petrol dump was set alight, and Freeport buildings and airport facilities were attacked. Timika, a town of 50,000 some 85 kilometres away, was placed under martial law by the Indonesian authorities after villagers forced the closure of the airport. Indonesian troops fired rubber bullets as 500 villagers surrounded an aircraft with a senior army officer on board.
West Papuans in touch with the protesters told the Inter Press Service's Pratap Chatterjee on March 13: We fight against Jim Moffett [chief executive of Freeport McMoran], Freeport and the government. We fight because our rights are not recognised, our resources are extracted and destroyed while our lives are taken.
The activists told Chatterjee that after the woman was attacked by the security guards at the shopping centre, she returned to the settlement of Banti and told the villagers. A crowd of 3000 men, women and children who were really mad marched to Tembagapura to confront the Freeport security. They were armed with bows, arrows, sticks and stones and they attacked the security office. The violence continued on Monday morning [March 11] when they attacked offices, schools and the shopping centre Seven security guards were injured.
On March 12, the protests spread to Timika, where demonstrators reportedly commandeered Freeport buses and bulldozers. One group proceeded to the airport and the Sheraton Hotel [owned by Freeport] and the environmental laboratory, the activists told Chatterjee. They were met by army troops who prevented them from going any further. Some army troops also joined the protesters. Meanwhile another group proceeded to Kuala Kencana, he added.
Kuala Kencana is a new Freeport company town under construction eight kilometres from the Timika airport. According to the London-based human rights group Tapol, thousands of people ran riot in Kuala Kencana, attacking security offices and company buildings and equipment.
It's like civil war. The Indonesian army sent in over 500 new troops from Jayapura, activists told Chatterjee. Two protesters were wounded, and several villagers have been arrested. The streets are now being patrolled by heavily armed troops. The mine reportedly resumed operations on March 15.